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VertOlive
May 7th, 2018, 08:39 PM
I've been thinking about this after reading another thread here. Now I have two questions:

1) If you journal, why do you journal, to what purpose?

2) To those that journal, will you leave them for others to read after you die, or will you burn them?

I'm still considering my answer to the second question; what about you?

Empty_of_Clouds
May 7th, 2018, 08:50 PM
Great topic!

I'm not sure I can separate the two reasons in such a black and white fashion, though others may.

There can be many reasons for journaling. I suppose most people see the term 'journaling' as alternative label for being a diarist, but it doesn't have to be. If one was of a whimsical outlook then a journal of the life of an imaginary character could be a fun exercise. Even writing a diary doesn't necessarily have to be personally revealing - it could be a time account of events in a particular place, seen through a particular lens perhaps.

What I'm getting at is that, at leat for me and sure for lots of others, journaling can be a creative medium rather than simply a record. And of course it can be both. I journal because I am interested in making observations, noting changes in mine and other's perspectives, historical reasons, interesting means of expression (words, formats, scripts etc.) and so on. I don't have a set theme for my journal, though now that I have written this post I may consider being more thematic.


As for who may read them when I die? Well, think of the Voynich manuscript. I like to imagine that people in the future, if they ever expressed an interest in reading my journals, would get some of it and be puzzled by the rest. If the journals get trashed ... well, who am I to place any measure of value on them? :)

Wuddus
May 7th, 2018, 08:53 PM
As I said in the other thread, I don't do journals, or not in the context that I understand conventional journalling to be. What I often do however, is "think out loud" with pen and paper. Putting stuff down on a page often helps me work through stuff better, and once whatever it is has been worked through, the pages can be discarded. The next time I rethink the same topic, I want to rethink it afresh, and not encumber myself with a previous train of thought.

However, I now need to put an addendum on this.

I have read a couple of people on here using the term "commonplace book", and I had absolutely no idea what they meant by it. Having just (and I mean just now) done a web search, I quite like the idea. I have no interest in a "dear diary" type journal, but am more open to the idea of having a lever arch file, within which I might gradually add recipes, quotations, or ideas for creative writing for example. I wouldn't personally call this a journal, but it's an interesting idea that I might dabble with.

This (unlike a journal) is something that I personally can see purpose in, and something that I might enjoy putting together and keeping. It's also something evolutionary, by which I mean things can be added, removed, or reorganised, rather than just starting at the front cover and finishing when there's no pages left.

It's also something that I wouldn't mind leaving for discovery by others, as it might leave hints of my character, without the minutiae of my innermost thoughts.

Empty_of_Clouds
May 7th, 2018, 09:02 PM
Wuddus, in some ways the commonplace book reminds me of a desk file. Is that kind of what you had in mind?

One other question, and please don't take this as a criticism because I'm just curious, but if you discard the pages do you run the risk of repeating yourself when you re-address the topic at a later date? I'm kind of thinking of a much-diluted version of the old saw: he who forgets history is doomed to repeat it.

Lady Onogaro
May 7th, 2018, 09:05 PM
Hi, VertOlive,

I do journal. I don't expect anyone will have to burn them; I'll probably get around to doing that. As Wuddus says, they are mostly of me thinking out loud to myself. I just keep it in a notebook, with washi, stickers, etc. It's really a more expressive act to me, and not a book of grievances or anything (though I do have those in there from time to tim).

If I don't get around to destroying them or burning them, let them read it if they want to read it. I'm not sure I say anything there that I don't say in my poems in a different way. I like to think that even my complaints about my loved ones are usually tempered with something I loved about them, too.

writingrav
May 7th, 2018, 09:05 PM
I've been thinking about these very subjects of late. I journal first because I love the physical act of writing and without my journal I would not get as much of it as I do. Nor would I get to use my pens enough. Journaling helps me think and sometimes work out my feelings about certain people or events. It also records events. Sometimes, on the fairly rare occasions when I read my journal over, I discover events, even in ay the last year, that I'd completely forgotten about, including concerts and movies and the like (this might be a function of age.)

As to you second question:I burned dozens of journals from an earlier period in my life. They deserved it, being filled with the typical whining of youth. Since I began this round of journaling, about 6 years ago, I've tried to avoid self-pity and other forms of emotional pap. It isn['t always possible, but I've done pretty well. Now I can't decide whether or not to burn this batch. I've made up my mind to decide by January, my 70th birthday.

Wuddus
May 7th, 2018, 09:17 PM
Wuddus, in some ways the commonplace book reminds me of a desk file. Is that kind of what you had in mind?

One other question, and please don't take this as a criticism because I'm just curious, but if you discard the pages do you run the risk of repeating yourself when you re-address the topic at a later date? I'm kind of thinking of a much-diluted version of the old saw: he who forgets history is doomed to repeat it.

It's just a seedling of an idea that's just been sown. I have no idea if it will sprout, or what it may grow into, or whether it will just decay. Time will tell.

As to discarding the pages once something is thought through, yes there is indeed the chance that I might repeat myself. However, there is also the chance I might reach a different conclusion. Things that happen between the first and second occurrence, may lead me to reaffirm my first conclusion, or to follow a different path the second time around. I feel it is more important to think freely each and every time, rather than be confined with what I might have thought once before.

migo984
May 7th, 2018, 11:48 PM
I love writing & record-keeping and I keep a few different “journals” including a commonplace book, a nature/weather observation & record, a book review journal, a poetry collection (others’ writing, not mine), an art journal (a mix of creative media), a quotations & lyrics journal, and a few others. Some I write in regularly (the nature journal has daily entries), others are more sporadic. I don’t tend to keep a diary-style traditional journal as I use my art journalling when I want to be more expressive but I do have an “Issues of the Day” notebook. Some of my journals might be of general interest when I’m gone; most won’t be.

I’ve had some major changes in my life recently that got me thinking about all my “stuff”, including my journals, and I’m starting on a slow process of decluttering, using the principles of dostadning, the Swedish word for “death cleaning”. This is the process of rationalising your life before you die, so your relatives aren’t left with the task of sorting through and disposing of your lifetime’s worth of possessions. It is a common and accepted thing to do in Scandinavia. Dostadning appeals to me at this time in my life and I’m looking forward to clearing my clutter & clearing my mind. My writings & journals will be part of that process.

Fermata
May 8th, 2018, 12:08 AM
I would love to find a very old journal, perhaps I should hide a journal, hidden in the rafters of my house. I would like to prepare a journal just for that purpose and enclose things inside the journal and then wonder what the people in 2525 will make of life in 2018.

Jon Szanto
May 8th, 2018, 01:06 AM
...and then wonder what the people in 2525 will make of life in 2018.

On the assumption that they could still read the (hand)written word.

Empty_of_Clouds
May 8th, 2018, 02:20 AM
You could liberally sprinkle it with emoticons. They are the hieroglyphics of the 21st century. :jester:

Fermata
May 8th, 2018, 04:34 AM
...and then wonder what the people in 2525 will make of life in 2018.

On the assumption that they could still read the (hand)written word.

Funnily enough, I asked an IT expert for their view, they thought it was unlikely that computers in 500 years would be able to read our 21st Century software. he explained why but I got bored halfway through until he showed me his first computer which had its drive on an external cassette.

In 2000 I made a Millenium capsule, filled with all the stuff that I thought would be of interest to my future self, news clippings and a CD of Prince's 1999. I put it in the garden where it would go undisturbed.

Dug it up by mistake last year and it was a load of crap, the news stuff was mainly about Clinton and Monica and I dont even have a CD player anymore.

Gobblecup
May 8th, 2018, 08:43 AM
...and then wonder what the people in 2525 will make of life in 2018.

On the assumption that they could still read the (hand)written word.

Funnily enough, I asked an IT expert for their view, they thought it was unlikely that computers in 500 years would be able to read our 21st Century software. he explained why but I got bored halfway through until he showed me his first computer which had its drive on an external cassette.

In 2000 I made a Millenium capsule, filled with all the stuff that I thought would be of interest to my future self, news clippings and a CD of Prince's 1999. I put it in the garden where it would go undisturbed.

Dug it up by mistake last year and it was a load of crap, the news stuff was mainly about Clinton and Monica and I dont even have a CD player anymore.

This has me laughing out loud!

One would hope at least a handful of scholars would be able to read the handwritten word still.

As for why I journal, I journal to work a kind of daily therapy for myself, as something to leave as a record of my thoughts for myself and possibly others, and to think things out on paper (which is kind of the therapy part just flushed out).

As a family genealogist I WISH I had more access to handwritten notes and journals of my ancestors and passed family memebers. I’d leave it to others to destroy my written record if they really wanted to, however I know it could be of use to someone like me to find my journals. That’s not to say I haven’t destroyed some of the writing I did as a late teenager (I went through a few weird phases), but I didn’t destroy all of it. If that comes off as arrogant or ridiculous, that I think others might want access to my thoughts and feelings when I pass, oh well, I guess I’m arrogant then! :p

Wuddus
May 8th, 2018, 10:56 AM
If that comes off as arrogant or ridiculous, that I think others might want access to my thoughts and feelings when I pass, oh well, I guess I’m arrogant then! :p

That's probably in response to an earlier post of mine. My bad! Arrogant was a poor choice of word, and not the one I wanted. However, it was the nearest one that I could put my finger on at the time :p the word I want, still eludes me.

countrydirt
May 8th, 2018, 11:55 AM
I've burned some of my journals from the past couple of years because they were so intensely personal and served as therapeutic mind dumps. I would't want my kids to find them. But, most of my journal writing is likely so inane that no one would actually want to read them. I have a pile of completed journals that anyone could read at any time and I don't mind.

Sailor Kenshin
May 8th, 2018, 12:38 PM
I've been thinking about this after reading another thread here. Now I have two questions:

1) If you journal, why do you journal, to what purpose?

2) To those that journal, will you leave them for others to read after you die, or will you burn them?

I'm still considering my answer to the second question; what about you?

How timely. I just learned that a longtime pen pal, who contacted me through a pen magazine, has passed away. I still have many of his letters.

I never burnt a journal, though I had plenty of 'fireplace moments.' When I indulged in teenage or midlife whining, that was who and what I was at the time.

When reading my mother's journals, I gained an understanding of certain things. Journaling must run in the family.

And I have too many of them: newly-rediscovered Morning Pages (from Julia Cameron, which I retitled The Inky Pages; my regular daily, which gets ignored now that I'm doing the Inky Pages; Deep Burning Questions; Movie/book/ink reviews; Memorable Writing Examples...and probably a half-dozen I'm forgetting.

Ur riterz cramp, I ha demz. O welz.

I do think of combining them all, but the Inky Pages absolutely must be on a cheap spiral notebook in black ink. Maybe the rest of them can be combined. Someday.

Thanks for starting the topic, V.

Paddler
May 8th, 2018, 01:31 PM
I've been thinking about this after reading another thread here. Now I have two questions:

1) If you journal, why do you journal, to what purpose?

2) To those that journal, will you leave them for others to read after you die, or will you burn them?

I'm still considering my answer to the second question; what about you?

1. I journal so people (family, I hope) will know more about me than two dates and a name. I have found that you can take some of the most mundane daily facts, add a slantendicular view of them, cop the right attitude, and write an entertaining story. I read these stories years later and think, "Wow. I had forgotten that!" These stories are interesting and entertaining even to me.

I also journal simply for the joy of writing. When writing, I usually imagine I am telling the story to a friend over the telephone. Forget the stilted grammar! Ladle in the slang! I am not in high school any more; nobody is looking over my shoulder with a grade book in hand. Sometimes I write and laugh so hard my belly muscles get sore. Terry Pratchett said, "Writing is the most fun you can have by yourself." It is true.

2. I don't understand people who bare their souls on paper. If you write something down, eventually someone else is going to read it. Paper, clay tablets, or Internet. All the same. Don't worry about burning; don't write personal stuff in the first place. I started journaling at the age of about 8 or 9. This is the only journal I would consider burning. It is so childish. But hey, I was a child once. No shame in that, just embarrassment.

catbert
May 8th, 2018, 04:27 PM
1. I keep several notebooks for different purposes — diary, lists, drawings, logs, drafts, morning pages, etc. They are more process than product, not intended to be revisited, though sometimes they help when memory fails.

2. They are more likely go in the recycling than get burned. (No garden, no furnace.) There's nothing to identify them as mine, no names in full, and my handwriting's pretty illegible.

VertOlive
May 8th, 2018, 07:07 PM
That settles it.

I will burn my journals and leave behind a completely fabricated, exotic, handwritten saga for my son to find after I'm gone. His head will spin thinking of how I spent my youth in foreign lands working as a pharmaceutical industrial spy and fashion model. He'll be amazed that he never knew I'd been raised in Egypt by Coptic monks.

That is, if he can decode the Latin...

pajaro
May 9th, 2018, 01:05 PM
I was starting to write about my life in my twenties. After about twenty pages I realized how much trouble the revelation of some things could cause, because of the revelation of some secrets not just mine, and some things that are mine alone to keep. I pulled the pages out and destroyed them. I write no more journals. I truly doubt that anyone would believe that any of this stuff could have happened to anyone anyway. I now think it is my duty to keep the crosses I bear to myself and not bother my family and others with them.

AzJon
May 9th, 2018, 06:32 PM
If historical reference is any guide, I could keep an immaculate written record of my life and the most historically interesting/important things would still be my grocery lists.

Journals don't give us as much insight into an age or time as it does insight solely into the author. While it might be interesting to your future progeny, "Great-great-great-great Grandpa AzJon stared into the pointless void again" isn't really a thrilling read. Dates, places, prices, and inventories are what compose the vast majority of historically relevant first hand accounts. So, in that respect a "to do" style journal would probably be more historically "significant" than a "my thoughts on the page" account.

If you want to be extra dramatic about it, you can burn your journals on the 15th of February, i.e. the Roman feast of purification. From Etymonline:

"late 14c., ultimately from Latin februarius mensis "month of purification," from februare "to purify," from februa "purifications, expiatory rites" (plural of februum "means of purification, expiatory offerings"), which is of uncertain origin, said to be a Sabine word. De Vaan says from Proto-Italic *f(w)esro-, from a PIE word meaning "the smoking" or "the burning" (thus possibly connected with fume (n.)). The sense then could be either purification by smoke or a burnt offering."

Seems reasonable to offer your journals to the pen gods.

FredRydr
May 9th, 2018, 07:32 PM
Imagine if Anne Frank's journal had been burned before her father found it.

Jon Szanto
May 9th, 2018, 09:49 PM
Imagine if Anne Frank's journal had been burned before her father found it.

Or Anais Nin's diaries, for that matter.

Fermata
May 10th, 2018, 07:08 AM
Imagine if Anne Frank's journal had been burned before her father found it.

Or Anais Nin's diaries, for that matter.

Or Henry Jones Senior's, for that matter.

Paddler
May 10th, 2018, 01:54 PM
Historians can look to themselves. My journals are not for them and their statistical analyses of my times. When our family swarms here during some of the holidays, a couple of nieces and nephews (some removed a generation or two) ask to read in my journals. They sit in a corner for hours and read. I see them sometimes smiling, sometimes serious. They read about their great grandfather taking a chew of tobacco out of his mouth and laying it up on a window sill to be further enjoyed later. They read about the swimmin' hole down at the creek. If I can write well enough to keep their attention, historians can go pound salt.

AzJon
May 10th, 2018, 03:41 PM
The notion of intentionally cataloguing one's life for future progeny strikes me as wrong. Anne Frank and Anais Nin didn't write for other people (though, I suppose Anais did, eventually), they wrote as an outlet for their experiences and emotions with the intention that they would never be seen by someone else. Indeed, Anne's father initially thought that Anne's diary should never be read by anyone, not even himself.

To perhaps clarify and bring it around to the original question: I do not write in a journal for anyone but myself. Therefore, I would wish them destroyed. They exist for my own weeding through times, good and bad, and serve as a reminder of things I did that I wouldn't actively remember otherwise.

A question asked, an answer given.

Jon Szanto
May 10th, 2018, 04:08 PM
As an aside to the discussion, I just came across the following article that might be of interest:

Celebrated Writers on the Creative Benefits of Keeping a Diary (https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/09/04/famous-writers-on-keeping-a-diary/)

VertOlive
May 10th, 2018, 06:03 PM
As an aside to the discussion, I just came across the following article that might be of interest:

Celebrated Writers on the Creative Benefits of Keeping a Diary (https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/09/04/famous-writers-on-keeping-a-diary/)

After reading this, I need to either step up the content on my own journals or definitely burn them!

AzJon
May 10th, 2018, 08:18 PM
As an aside to the discussion, I just came across the following article that might be of interest:

Celebrated Writers on the Creative Benefits of Keeping a Diary (https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/09/04/famous-writers-on-keeping-a-diary/)

precisely to my point from the first line. "'You want to write, you need to keep an honest, unpublishable journal that nobody reads, nobody but you,' Madeleine L’Engle..."

and further to that point: "Indeed, if there is one thing I’ve learned about diaries, both by having read tens of thousands of pages of artists’ and writers’ journals and by having frequently revisited my own from the distance of time, is that nothing written in a diary is to be taken as the diarist’s personal dogma"

When we write with the intention of someone else reading what we write later on, are we really telling the truth of that moment or do we smooth over the rough edges for a yet unknown reader?

Jon Szanto
May 10th, 2018, 09:33 PM
precisely to my point from the first line. "'You want to write, you need to keep an honest, unpublishable journal that nobody reads, nobody but you,' Madeleine L’Engle..."

and further to that point: "Indeed, if there is one thing I’ve learned about diaries, both by having read tens of thousands of pages of artists’ and writers’ journals and by having frequently revisited my own from the distance of time, is that nothing written in a diary is to be taken as the diarist’s personal dogma"

When we write with the intention of someone else reading what we write later on, are we really telling the truth of that moment or do we smooth over the rough edges for a yet unknown reader?

I certainly would never take issue with your own personal wishes in all of this, nor anyone else's. I rarely 'journal' or diary-down my own thoughts and don't have a strong feeling as to how I would choose them to be dealt with. That said, I think there are windows into a persona that open during unguarded moments. I believe there is a strata of these writings that fall somewhere between intentionally private and overtly written-to-be-read. In those writings we might very well not only catch insights into another life but into our own.

countrydirt
May 12th, 2018, 06:11 AM
Well, this thread has certainly become thought provoking for me. Thank you for the links to other's thoughts about it. I think I may change up my approach to writing in my daily diary/journal. Pondering all of this for the past few days I recall reading my grandmother's diaries when I was younger. She started keeping them around 1940 when they bought their first ranch ground in Southeastern Colorado. Early on she recorded details like numbers of calves branded or sheep sheared, sale prices, major purchases and whatnot. As they became more established in business and acquired modern conveniences like running water and electricity, she wrote more about the day to day doings on the ranch and in life like interactions with neighbors and friends and starting in 1961, recorded information about grandkids being born and the like. She always kept those page a day leather bound books on a shelf and anyone could read them. She actually used them to help her remember some details when she wrote out a 40 or 50 page history of her and Grandpa's lives for a pioneer history event around 1976 or so.

Thanks for helping me focus a bit more. Maybe I'll quit writing so willy nilly in whatever books I find in my overflowing stash of notebooks and get a little more focused on recording the actual events of my life...even that intensely personal stuff that impacts who I am as a man, husband, father and teacher.

myu
May 12th, 2018, 06:52 PM
I was starting to write about my life in my twenties. After about twenty pages I realized how much trouble the revelation of some things could cause, because of the revelation of some secrets not just mine, and some things that are mine alone to keep. I pulled the pages out and destroyed them. I write no more journals. I truly doubt that anyone would believe that any of this stuff could have happened to anyone anyway. I now think it is my duty to keep the crosses I bear to myself and not bother my family and others with them.
Sounds intriguing. You should re-write and use pseudonyms to protect identities!

I have a couple of "journals". I put that in quotes because they're not regular logs of any kind. I have one where I've torn pages out many times. I'd written about plans and things I wanted to do, then later on saw such folly and failure, I didn't want to be reminded of it. I actually lost track of the book, as I think it's stowed in a box somewhere. I kept it for sentimental reasons as I'd written about some previous relationships, but at this point I'm not feeling that sentiment any longer and would just assume I should destroy it (I will when I finally find it).

One notebook is supposed to be used for recording positive things and successes. Another is for really anything -- random thoughts, ranting, etc. I'm unable to be consistent and I write notes to myself in attempts to help myself achieve it. But the book has developed a long trail of "new beginnings" and "failed execution" over and over again. And each time I start a new one, I feel the pain of past failure. It doesn't motivate me. It more than likely just seeds the repetition. I don't want anyone to ever read all this crap. I'll more than likely destroy the rant book and keep the positive one, that captures more about what I want than about what I am. Pretty sad, isn't it.

calamus
May 13th, 2018, 11:31 PM
Imagine if Anne Frank's journal had been burned before her father found it.

Or Anais Nin's diaries, for that matter.

Or Henry Jones Senior's, for that matter.

Samuel Pepys and Samuel Johnson come to mind...

KKay
May 14th, 2018, 08:51 PM
When I was a kid, I had a diary or two. I have not thought too hard about doing it again until recently. I have all kinds of different journals around here that I use. Hopefully one I am working on will not be thrown away. I will call it a commonplace journal, so you can have an idea on what it may contain. I have thought about telling my life story for my kids and future grandkids to read. I have thought about journaling current events, and my thoughts. I have a new journal that is waiting for me to make up my mind, on how I will use it. So far I have not made a firm decision. I would not write very personal things in a journal, that I wouldn't want someone to read in my family. I prefer to use cursive most of the time, and that could be a problem in the future. If people cannot read it, it would've been a waste of time.

To answer the second question, no I would not burn it. I will leave that up to my kids to decide.

Wuddus
May 17th, 2018, 07:37 AM
While still not journalling in the sense that I understand it, I have now started my own recipe book with a spare pad I had lurking in the cupboard. I'll be using it to record my own favourites, and recipes that I modified from others to reflect ingredients that I am actually likely to buy (unlike most of the recipe books I've bought).

I don't mind that one being found/inherited by others.

Paddler
May 17th, 2018, 01:44 PM
. . . I prefer to use cursive most of the time, and that could be a problem in the future. If people cannot read it, it would've been a waste of time.

Don't worry about people being able to read cursive. If the text is written in a language the reader knows, he/she can figure it out in about a half hour. If you already know the German language, reading blackletter is not difficult if you apply yourself. If someone is not motivated to figure out your chicken scratchin', the journal is wasted on him/her anyway.

Driften
May 24th, 2018, 01:29 PM
I journal to record the my daily progress on the novels I write. It helps me clear my mind at the end of the day. I don't think they would be very interesting to anybody else or even for me to read again later.

Maybe if I am a famous author some day some fan would pay good money for a limited glimpse into the mind of an author, but I don't expect to be famous, just hope to make some money doing something I enjoy. I expect they will hit the recycle bin at some point....

suzy01
May 25th, 2018, 09:15 PM
I don't journal regularly, I have started on many occasions but I think they're all lost in the loft since we moved years ago. If I ever found them I might burn them. I'm trying to keep a daily record but it's on my phone so doesn't count ;) sometimes I've art journalled but couldn't really get the hang of it as opposed to a general sketchbook. I have a 100 year diary I'd like to fill in but keep not getting around to. It's pretty cool, has a double page for each season and a few additional pages per year for photos and lists. It's a bit bulky so I don't take it out much though. I have a second one I bought when my daughter was born and thought I could fill it for her until she is old enough but I've only done about 6m worth and she's now 3yrs [emoji23] I find I cannot really recall well the last three months to fill it which is a sad state for my brain to be in.

Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk

hogwldfltr
April 4th, 2020, 10:31 AM
I restarted journaling recently. I used to when I was in college as well. That's a long time in the past. I stopped journaling because a girl friend at the time read my journal and pretty much dumped me for it. Took the drivel as gospel and not what it was. It was my way of examining myself giving me an opportunity to reflect on my thoughts and feelings.

Now I've been married almost 35 years and I'm a bit guarded wrt my writing as it can still get me in trouble. I was writing poetry and posted on my fb account a poem on lust. My wife was so upset that I took it down. I still hear about it when she's feeling insecure. At any rate, journaling in a notebook is much less likely to get me in trouble than posting my thoughts on facebook. The posted poem was one of about 150 over a six month period.

Deb
April 4th, 2020, 10:47 AM
Happy to share mine with my husband but after that the fire.

Fermata
April 4th, 2020, 11:35 AM
There was a story that I recall but I have searched for it now and cannot find evidence of it, it was a treasure trove with a journal at the heart of it.

In essence, a family lived in a 100 year old house and they decided to do some renovations. Within the attic they found a note nailed to the rafters which said something to the effect of I have left you this note and it is to tell you how to find my journal, my pen and some photographs of my family, look in the garage, you will find a box hidden in the roof. It was dated 1936 and signed by the daughter of the house who was 12 years old at the time. The box was found, it contained a journal, a junior Duofold, photographs and a few personal items. The journal told of her daily life.

Rather than burn our journals it may be possible for you to hide away your journals to be found in 100 years time.

There was also a Holocaust Diary found, 70 years later,

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/astonishing-holocaust-diary-hidden-world-70-years-resurfaced-america-180970534/


Our journals may be hum drum today but treasures for the future.

TSherbs
April 4th, 2020, 11:43 AM
Burn. I already toss out one for each one I add: the shelf is full. My journals only serve me in the moment that I write them. I do not revisit them. I only keep some of them to remind myself to write more.

Sent from my Moto E (4) using Tapatalk

countrydirt
April 4th, 2020, 01:20 PM
The Covid-19 pandemic and resultant 'stay at home' has certainly changed what and how much I am writing now. I think I've written around 100 pages in my A5 notebook since March 12, which was when our school decided to start spring break a week early. Now, as of yesterday, no more in person school this year, so embarking on a new journal of remote teaching. I'm sure I'll have plenty to write about that.

Chrissy
April 4th, 2020, 01:42 PM
I don't keep diaries or daily journals but I write in notebooks. When they are full I transfer important facts and details to the new book and destroy the old one. Usually by tearing out the pages and shredding them.

Voiren
April 4th, 2020, 03:14 PM
I am normally not a journaller (or not a journaller outside of ink references, or away-from-home holiday time, occasional book reviews) but did today just do some more writing in a journal I haven't touched since the Christmas I was given it. I thought things were sufficiently weird right now that I'd record some of it. Also so I could check when which changes happened. I generally have a good memory, but my memory of chronology is terrible.

Even used the pen that has Scabiosa in it! There's been a drip or two of water on prior pages.

No burning here - I think a handwritten journal is sufficiently entrancing as an object, even if all the entries are deadly dull! I'd hope someone ended up with them that thought the same. At the least, you can make artwork out of them.

hogwldfltr
April 5th, 2020, 09:22 AM
I've been thinking about this after reading another thread here. Now I have two questions:

1) If you journal, why do you journal, to what purpose?

2) To those that journal, will you leave them for others to read after you die, or will you burn them?

I'm still considering my answer to the second question; what about you?

I bought a fountain pen and it caused me to want to write in pen and paper. A journal seemed as good a place to place my thoughts as anything else. In general I'm ore prone to writing poetry using a computer to record it. I was working at a poem per day but it didn't last when I got sick it turned morose. When I wrote using the computer it was easy to succumb to the temptation to place the writing on facebook for others to see. One poem in particular about lust my wife took umbrage with. Less of an issue with pen and paper.

Back in the midst of the gap between my first and second degree engagement I had a journal while working a couple of jobs to support myself. I was dating a beautiful young lady who decided to help herself to the contents. She didn't like my questions to myself about love. She took my using a journal to examine life as a statement of my soul not realizing that points of view don't necessarily capture essential reality. It pretty much was the beginning of the end of the relationship.

For now I journal because it's an opportunity to write without too much temptation to share.

As to burn or not, once gone I won't care.

Deb
April 5th, 2020, 09:39 AM
Both my husband and I use notebooks a great deal. We get through several in a year. It's not really journalling, I suppose. Most of it is drafts for articles in the pen blog and other stuff in Dreamwidth. My husband writes a lot of autobiographical articles that aren't posted anywhere. A lot of it is personal. I'm not sure it would be of interest to anyone else but I'm not sure we would like the idea of someone else reading it, even after we're gone. I think I said earlier that I would burn them but I'm greener than that. It's what the shredder is for.

Igraine
March 13th, 2021, 02:26 PM
I keep a journal just because I like to write....but it’s not very personal. I don’t share my deepest, darkest thoughts. I think this can be traced back to my childhood and teenage years, when I kept diaries faithfully. Unbeknownst to me, my mother was sneaking into my room and reading them...and then would later throw things in my face based on what she read - I can remember thinking “How does she KNOW that??”

I thought my hiding places were good, and to her credit, she was worried and perplexed by me, and was desperately trying to figure me out - but it was a major invasion of my privacy, even as a child, and left me with a lifelong phobia of writing anything down that I wouldn’t want someone else to read. So, my journals today are pretty boring. Accounts of what I might have done that day, to do lists, bitching about work, etc. It’s just the pleasure of the act of writing that has me doing it.

manoeuver
March 13th, 2021, 05:11 PM
also keep in mind you might not want to deprive folks of the opportunity to choose not to read your journals.

Jon Szanto
March 13th, 2021, 05:27 PM
also keep in mind you might not want to deprive folks of the opportunity to choose not to read your journals.

By that token, should I infer that you wouldn't want me to erase all my master tapes?

An old bloke
March 13th, 2021, 06:34 PM
While I don't journal, there are other personal and confidential documents, letters, notes, records, etc. that could prove -- shall we say -- disadvantageous to someone, one's self, a relative, or friend for instance, if their contents were divulged. burning is a viable option. I personally prefer to shred anything of a remotely personal nature including daily correspondence, and recycle the resulting paper chips.

Part of my motivation for this is having had the responsibility of administering to the affairs of family members after their passing, I do not want to impose the tedious chore sorting through one's papers my heirs.

Igraine
March 14th, 2021, 08:20 AM
While I don't journal, there are other personal and confidential documents, letters, notes, records, etc. that could prove -- shall we say -- disadvantageous to someone, one's self, a relative, or friend for instance, if their contents were divulged. burning is a viable option. I personally prefer to shred anything of a remotely personal nature including daily correspondence, and recycle the resulting paper chips.

Part of my motivation for this is having had the responsibility of administering to the affairs of family members after their passing, I do not want to impose the tedious chore sorting through one's papers my heirs.

I work in the medical field, and have thought a lot this past year about dying...I hate the thought of people having to deal with my things, bad enough I own too much useless stuff. I’ve considered finally going through and getting rid of several cabinets and drawers full of papers, receipts, etc etc...but it’s a chore I dread. Instead I think I’ll just put a note on top of them all saying “you can just throw this crap away”

An old bloke
March 14th, 2021, 11:07 AM
While I don't journal, there are other personal and confidential documents, letters, notes, records, etc. that could prove -- shall we say -- disadvantageous to someone, one's self, a relative, or friend for instance, if their contents were divulged. burning is a viable option. I personally prefer to shred anything of a remotely personal nature including daily correspondence, and recycle the resulting paper chips.

Part of my motivation for this is having had the responsibility of administering to the affairs of family members after their passing, I do not want to impose the tedious chore sorting through one's papers my heirs.

I work in the medical field, and have thought a lot this past year about dying...I hate the thought of people having to deal with my things, bad enough I own too much useless stuff. I’ve considered finally going through and getting rid of several cabinets and drawers full of papers, receipts, etc etc...but it’s a chore I dread. Instead I think I’ll just put a note on top of them all saying “you can just throw this crap away”
I have to say that is actually a clever idea.

TSherbs
March 14th, 2021, 11:10 AM
While I don't journal, there are other personal and confidential documents, letters, notes, records, etc. that could prove -- shall we say -- disadvantageous to someone, one's self, a relative, or friend for instance, if their contents were divulged. burning is a viable option. I personally prefer to shred anything of a remotely personal nature including daily correspondence, and recycle the resulting paper chips.

Part of my motivation for this is having had the responsibility of administering to the affairs of family members after their passing, I do not want to impose the tedious chore sorting through one's papers my heirs.

I have had this task, too. Hours and hours of tedium. Bills and bank statements 30 years old. Accounts long defunct. Correspondence and journals long discarded, just never tossed. I took six pickup truck loads to the dump of just paper when my mother moved into assisted living. She did not want anything, and none of it was the least bit interesting to me or my siblings. We tend to over value, I think, the stuff we keep and the junk we think.

Jon Szanto
March 14th, 2021, 11:23 AM
I have had this task, too. Hours and hours of tedium. Bills and bank statements 30 years old. Accounts long defunct. Correspondence and journals long discarded, just never tossed. I took six pickup truck loads to the dump of just paper when my mother moved into assisted living. She did not want anything, and none of it was the least bit interesting to me or my siblings. We tend to over value, I think, the stuff we keep and the junk we think.

I am so, so down with this. It started when I lost my bro-in-law to an accident and it fell to me to clear out his house and ready it for sale, and he wasn't an old man. It has continued through the houses of my in-laws, my parents, and an uncle. Even if you are dispassionately removed from the task (not always the case) it is a mind-numbing burden and I look around our house and slump over with where we have gotten, ourselves. I've actually tried to make a start on reduction because, frankly, we don't have kids and I have no idea who this would fall on if we were both taken out suddenly by an alien death-ray or something.

Stuff. So much stuff.

manoeuver
March 14th, 2021, 03:32 PM
also keep in mind you might not want to deprive folks of the opportunity to choose not to read your journals.

By that token, should I infer that you wouldn't want me to erase all my master tapes?

yeah, what if I want to do it?

FredRydr
March 14th, 2021, 03:52 PM
also keep in mind you might not want to deprive folks of the opportunity to choose not to read your journals.

By that token, should I infer that you wouldn't want me to erase all my master tapes?

yeah, what if I want to do it?
Well, if you really want to do it, here's how to do it:


https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fimg2.thejournal.ie%2Finline%2F4951 16%2Foriginal%2F%3Fwidth%3D630%26version%3D495116&f=1&nofb=1
(Courtesy of Rose Mary Woods)

Jon Szanto
March 14th, 2021, 03:56 PM
also keep in mind you might not want to deprive folks of the opportunity to choose not to read your journals.

By that token, should I infer that you wouldn't want me to erase all my master tapes?

yeah, what if I want to do it?
Well, if you really want to do it, here's how to do it:

Now you're just carbon dating the people reading this thread! :D

Parsimonious
March 14th, 2021, 04:05 PM
I've been keeping a journal for almost 6 months now. There is nothing hurtful in it that I would be afraid for family or friends to read. It's just a record of my daily life and thoughts and of little interest to anyone else. I have a separate spiral notebook for things I don't want to share. I write in it, read it, tear it out and crumple it up. Nobody else sees it and I feel better.

I have written vignettes from my life. I'm 81. It's something I wish my parents had done. They are printed out and in a binder that's available for anyone who might care about them.

Jon Szanto
March 14th, 2021, 04:16 PM
On the heels of the previous post, I do have one serious entry:

We recently unearthed a recording done of a performance series I took part in Berlin in 1980. Everyone had assumed it would never turn up. It has now been produced and issued as both a CD and digital recording. In preparing materials for it, one night I was sitting at my desk and had a thought to turn around. I looked straight back at the far corner of my bookcase and spotted a thin, blue volume.

And I was right: it was a travel journal I kept from that trip - the 1st two weeks were with the performing group, and then I spent six weeks traveling solo around Europe and Middle East. I went back to the entries surrounding the performing part and there were all kinds of details I had forgotten in the ensuing 41 years! I'm really glad I did that journal and hung on to it. Pretty remarkable to have a handwritten memory aid for my own life.

Parsimonious
March 14th, 2021, 06:06 PM
You can forget a lot in 40 years. I wish I had taken better notes. I think I read somewhere that the best memory in the world isn't as good as a note on a piece of paper. Or, something like that.

Chip
September 21st, 2021, 11:39 PM
Got a request from a university archive to deposit my papers: manuscripts, letters, journals, etc.

Along with the manuscripts of books based on journals and notes, I deposited the original source materials.

There are a few silly things I'll leave out, but for the most part I don't regret anything I wrote.

I might have been mistaken, but never untrue nor malicious.